The Waiting Land - BookWyrm

Paperback, 256 pages

English language

Published Sept. 22, 2011 by Eland Publishing Ltd.

ISBN:: 978-1-906011-65-9

(1 review)

In "The Waiting Land" (first published in 1967) Dervla Murphy affectionately portrays the people of Nepal's different tribes, the customs of an ancient, complex civilization and the country's natural grandeur and beauty.

This is the third of Dervla Murphy's early travel books: an exploration of Nepal by a feisty, generous-hearted young Irish woman.

Yet it can also be seen as the completion of a trilogy of books concerned with her experience of self- sufficient mountain cultures, first tasted in crossing Persia and Afghanistan in "Full Tilt", and deepened with her experience of working with Tibetan refugees in the frontiers of Northern India, as told in "Tibetan Foothold".

Having settled in a village in the Pokhara Valley to work at a Tibetan refugee camp, she makes her home in a tiny, vermin-infested room over a stall in the bazaar.

In diary form, she describes her various journeys by air, by bicycle …

In "The Waiting Land" (first published in 1967) Dervla Murphy affectionately portrays the people of Nepal's different tribes, the customs of an ancient, complex civilization and the country's natural grandeur and beauty.

This is the third of Dervla Murphy's early travel books: an exploration of Nepal by a feisty, generous-hearted young Irish woman.

Yet it can also be seen as the completion of a trilogy of books concerned with her experience of self- sufficient mountain cultures, first tasted in crossing Persia and Afghanistan in "Full Tilt", and deepened with her experience of working with Tibetan refugees in the frontiers of Northern India, as told in "Tibetan Foothold".

Having settled in a village in the Pokhara Valley to work at a Tibetan refugee camp, she makes her home in a tiny, vermin-infested room over a stall in the bazaar.

In diary form, she describes her various journeys by air, by bicycle and on foot into the remote and mountainous Lantang region on the border of Tibet. Murphy's charm and sensitivity as a writer and traveller reveal not only the vitality of an age-old civilization facing the challenge of Westernisation, but the wonder and excitement of her own remarkable adventures.

1 edition

B 🌻 A B reviewed The Waiting Land by Dervla Murphy

More of the same

4 stars

While you could consider this book to be a continuation of Tibetan Foothold and just more of the same, it both is and isn't. There's less about working with the refuges, but more about what's wrong with the way the aid is being supplied and distributed. It's obvious now with the passage of time, that some of the issues that Murphy raises and their consequences have come to pass. It's still an interesting read though, especially as you get the feeling that this is a Nepal that no longer exists, due to the increase modern development and tourism. Just like Tibetan Foothold though, the bits I enjoyed the most were ho her travels, especially the trek at the end of her stay.

Subjects

Travel writing
Refugees & political asylum

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